e r • i' 
 
W$t Hibrarp 
 
 of the 
 
 Untoersiitp of JSortf) Carolina 
 
 tEJje Cameron Collection 
 
 3fn jiflemorp of 
 
 pennefjan Cameron 
 
 September 9, l854 = 3Tune 1, 1925 
 
 trustee of tf)e ©nibersttp of J^ortft Carolina 
 1891=1925 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 R, R. BRIDGERS, ESQ., 
 
 OF EDGECOMBE, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CONVENTION QUESTION, 
 Delivered in Committee of the Whole in tJie House of Com- 
 mons of North-Carolina, January 14fA, 1861. •*' 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — The measure under consideration is the most 
 Important that has occupied the attention of any legislature since the 
 formation of the Federal Union Questions of policy have arisea from 
 time to time which have involved matters of great interest ; proposi- 
 tions for Constitutional reform have excited deep feelings and have 
 aroused sectional jealousy ; but these questions of great importance 
 sink into insignificance compared with a call of a convention to deter- 
 mine our future relations with our confederated republic. To remain/ 
 in or go out of the Union addresses the interest and patriotism of all. 
 The severance of the Union that has given us prosperity and protec- 
 tion should not be dealt with as matters of ordinary policy. It should 
 be considered well in all its bearings. With the patriotism of freemen 
 let us rise above all party strife and dissensions, and unite in the pro- 
 tection of our common rights. 
 
 Nature has been lavish of her gifts to us. She has given the ele- 
 ments of a great State. No like space of territory on the Americao. 
 continent has a greater variety of soil and elimate, yielding a greater 
 abundance of productions for the wants of man, and at the same time 
 affording a higher degree of health to its inhabitants. As abundant as 
 these resources are, their development for a long time to come will de- 
 pend on the supply of African slave laoor, the continuance of which 
 may depend on our action on the bill under consideration. 
 
 The question involved is, shall we submit to the oppression of higher 
 law dogmas, and infidel vagaries of fanaticism, or shall we, as our an- 
 cestors did, seek protection in a new government ? There is but one- 
 proper way of deciding this question ; that is to call a convention, and 
 let the people, from whom all political power is derived, speak and de- 
 clare their will 
 
 The legislature has no power to decide these questions ; all power 
 -not vested in the legislature, and not delegated to the Federal Govern- 
 
merit, is reserved to the people, who have vested in us the authority to 
 call a convention. Article 4ih and section 1st of the Amended Consti- 
 tution reads, " no convention of the people shall be called by the Gen- 
 eral Assembly unless by the concurrence of iwo-thirds of all the mem- 
 bers of each House of the General Assembly. 
 
 The people's constitution has delegated to the legislature the power 
 to say that there shall be a convention, or that there shall be no con- 
 vention ; the members of the General Assembly who are supposed to 
 reflect the will of their constituents are vested with the power of put- 
 tiug into motion the main spring of sovereign popular action. They 
 have only such authority as is delegated to them by the constitution, 
 and n > where does that instrument empower them to limit the popu 
 lar will represented in sovereign convontion. A convention of the 
 people have a right to abrogate all constitutions and laws heretofore 
 made ; if, then, this legislature should pass an act of limitation, the 
 convention would, at its pleasure, repeal it. The servant may request 
 ' but never command his master. 
 
 When the call is made and the convention duly organized, it is the 
 supreme legislature of the people; it is their representative voice, know- 
 ing no limit, save what is imposed by the people themselves according 
 to the forms of the constitution; any action otherwise is revolution. 
 
 If we had the power T I would propose several restrictions and limi- 
 tations; among them I would require the action of the convention to 
 be submitted to the people for ratification. The people, however, have 
 this matter in their own hands, and no doubt will exercise it. They 
 will elect delegates to carry out their will ; they will have these matters 
 discussed, and their representatives will fully understand them and fully 
 represent them. To suppose the delegates will misrepresent their con- 
 stituents is a supposition contrary to our experience, and is against the 
 theory and practice of our government. 
 
 If, however, a majority of the legislature shall be of different opin- 
 ion as to our power of limiting the convention, I will still co-operate in 
 the call, while I think it will be altogether discretionary with the con- 
 vention, when organized, whether or not they will be governed by these 
 limitations. It seems to me that the extraordinary importance of the 
 issue demands that it should not be complicated with other questions. 
 Already four of the southern States have withdrawn from the Union, 
 and nearly all of the remainder of the slave States will have followed 
 before the fourth of March; we have like interest and like grievances 
 with them, ard surrounded by common charges have the same motive 
 to action. 
 
 The government is virtually destroyed ; we cannot remain idle spec- 
 tators, we must continue under the rule of the north or go with our 
 friends of the South. The indications are, that all of our sister south- 
 ern States, with a single exception, will call conventions at an early day, 
 ■while all, both north and south, seem to be preparing for the conflict. 
 
3 
 
 Shall North-Carolina do nothing ? For two months we have sit here 
 without coming to a conclusion. 
 
 We are invited to consult and take action with, some of our sister 
 States, shall we refuse to take counsel with them? If North-Cai-olina 
 wishes to lay down an ultimatum, the legislature is nnt the proper body. 
 For twenty years southern legislatures have, in vain, made their re- 
 monstrances against the aggressive acts of the north, an ultimatum laid 
 down by this legislature would have a like result, for they know we 
 have do such power. One of the great difficulties in getting our wrongs 
 redressed is, the north believes, that we are divided, that among the 
 people south they have numerous advocates of their side of the question; 
 a delay of southern States to make preparation for prompt action will 
 confirm them in their opinion and make them more determined and ob- 
 stinate in their resistance to our just demands. 
 
 We can only act by a convection ; tho Constitution ef the United 
 States provides that " no State, without the consent of Congress, shall 
 enter into any compact with any other State.'' 
 
 The people of each of the Slates, in their sovereign, representative 
 capacity, are the only tribunals to judge of the infractions of the 
 federal compact, and to decide on the mode and measure of redress. 
 Great Britain acknowledged the independence of thirteen separate 
 States who by that act became independent nations. Afterwards those 
 nations made mutual treaties with each other in the shape of the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, delegating to the government certain powers to be 
 held for the benefit and mutual protection of the people of all the 
 States. Sovereign States are the judges of the due execution of trea- 
 ties and compacts made between them. We have no tribunal created 
 for the purpose of deciding disputed political questions between the 
 General Government and State governments. The States in their sov- 
 ereign capacities, through the action of the people, created the Federal 
 Union, and, like nations making treaties with each other, must, of ne- 
 cessity, judge of their due execution. Any wilful act of violation of 
 the federal compact is a just cause of dissolution of the Union, but 
 whether a dissolution shall be insisted on is a question of policy to be 
 decided by the aggrieved party. If a State decides to withdraw, her 
 citizens owe no allegiance to the Union of States; they have to look to 
 their State for their allegiance and protection. 
 
 We are, however, told by some we are traitors, and are liable to be 
 -condemned and executed for the treason. Does the compact of the 
 thirteen States bind us together any stronger than the colonies were 
 bound to Great Britain ? They revolted against the British govern- 
 ment; and their citizens were never treated as traitors. The resistance 
 by armed torce on the part of citizens to their government is adjudged 
 by the laws of nations to be treason, while resistance of citizens under 
 •an organized government has never been considered treason. 
 
 The American States are the boasted asylum of the down-trodden 
 and oppressed of all countries ; the home of the political refugees of 
 9.11 nations. Will it be said that they can stay the hand of the oppres- 
 
 •*• 
 ft 
 
sor against all except her own people? If this be so, we have to leara 
 new ideas of American liberty. Call it treason, rebellion, or lawful se- 
 cession, North Carolina will withdraw from tbe Union unless her rights 
 are protected in it. 
 
 If the next Administration shall pursue an aggressive policy, with- 
 out a convention to take us promptly out of the Union, our State will 
 be in a very defenceless condition. If it should become necessary to 
 secede, our enemies would have it in their power to occupy our forts 
 and strong points with their troops before we could convene the legis- 
 lature for the purpose of calling a convention, Let us have the repre- 
 sentative popular will in a condition to speak. 
 
 There are those who hope that the dlfficuties may be adjusted. I 
 heartily wish they may, though I see no grounds on which to indulge 
 the hope. Our safety lies in prompt withdrawal, unless immediate 
 evidences are given that our rights will be admitted and maintained in 
 the Union. 
 
 The Federal Constitution was formed for the protection of the per- 
 sons and property of the citizens of the States ; in the present state of 
 the public mind, it is rapidly becoming powerless for either. Many of 
 the northern States boldly ignore the constitution by their press, their 
 public opinion, and their statute laws. They have nullified the statute of 
 Congress for the rendition of fugitive slaves, and have made it penal for 
 persons to arrest or assist in the arresting of runaway negroes. Their 
 citizens steal and entice away, annually, hundreds of thousands of dol- 
 lars of slave property, and when the hand of justice demands the pun- 
 ishment of their crimes, they are protected by their State authorities, 
 that deny the negro is the subject of property. Armed bands of law- 
 less men have been sent into the common territories for the purpose of 
 driving off southern men with their slave property so as to increase the 
 number of slave States; emmissaries have been sent into the States to 
 excite servile war and insurrection. The have attempted to destroy the 
 peace and safety of our homes by the application of the torch of the 
 incendiary, and the knife of the assassin. In the border States they 
 have urged the slave to use every means for the destruction of his 
 master, with the promise of protection if he could make his escape into 
 their States. They have invaded their sister States with armed forces for 
 thepurpose of exciting slaves to rebellion. Having failed in the execution 
 of that wretched purpose, some of them made their escape, and having 
 been demanded as refugees from justice, were protected by the govern- 
 ors of States whose plain constitutional duty was to have surrendered 
 them 
 
 When the raid into Virginia was investigated, prominent citizens of 
 northern States were discovered to have been complicated with it, and 
 men high in place were fixed with a guilty knowledge ; in the place of 
 punishmens for their crimes they are advanced higher in public estima- 
 tion. Large numbers of people celebrate the execution of the principal 
 felon as martyrdom to the cause of freedom. These fanatics pro- 
 claim the Union a -'covenant with hell," and avow their purpose to 
 use it for our destruction, m ,» 
 
5 
 
 A distinguished son of our own State, a few years past, received an 
 appointment from the government to a foreign mission, and while on 
 his way to the place of his duties, in passing through a nortnern State 
 with his servants, they were forcibly taken from him without compen- 
 sation, and no redress, either by the State or General Government, was 
 ever offered to him. Had a foreign m : nister of another country received 
 the like injury and insult, a prompt demand for redress would have 
 been made, had it not been given, the wrong would have been avenged 
 with the sword. They have been taught to hate and dispise us; there 
 is, to-day, greater feelings of hostility between the two sections of / 
 country than there was between great Britain and our States previous 
 to the outbreak of the revolution. They have consummated ihe 
 crowning act by the election ot a sectional President, who, if he were 
 to go into fifteen of the southern States and proclaim his principles, 
 would be adjudged a felon by the laws of those States. With all these 
 outrages staring us in the face, we are gravely told that there is no 
 cause for disunion, that we should be worse off with our institutions out 
 of it than in it A tame submission to the hand of aggression has 
 always been followed up with the iron heel of tyranny; if a single act 
 would finish the wrong, expediency might consider the policy of sub- 
 mission. All history teaches us whenever a people quietly submit tov- 
 wilful oppression, the day of their degradation is near at hand. 
 
 The wild fanaticism that has brought about the election of Abraham 
 Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States commenced exhibiting 
 itself in the halls of Congress about a quarter of a centmy ago. At 
 first it attracted but little attention ; it was considered the ravings of 
 diseased imaginations. Initiated at an early day into the pulpit, it be- 
 gan to extend to the press and to political assemblies, and has extended 
 itself from year to year, until a majority of the people are tainted with 
 it. All the northern legislatures are in its crushing grasp, and are 
 ready to obey its mandates. Soon after the nomination of Lincoln, his 
 friends declared that his election would be the downfall of slavery; and 
 after his election they declared that the southern States were and would 
 continue to be without influence in the government. 
 
 They have declared that they will get possession of the entire gov- 
 ernment and abolish slavery according to law. They would have had 
 the entire control of all the departments of government after the next 
 ongress even if none of the States had withdra wn 
 
 The apportionment unde" the census of 1860 gives four additional 
 members to the present number ; the south loses eighteen, which will 
 require a gain of twenty to enable them to hold their own. If the ap- 
 portionment had been made before the present Congress was elected, 
 the black republicans would have had a decided majority in the House 
 of Representatives. With every northern legislature under their con- 
 trol, they will gerrymander the Congressional districts, so as to stifle 
 the voice of the patriotic citizens, and instead of losing members, they 
 will take nearly ad they have to elect. If there should be any reaction 
 with the people, the executive patronage with the gerrymandering of 
 
legislative districts will keep up the majorities in the several legislatures. 
 
 The year 1863, with the admission of Kansas, will complete their 
 control of the Senate, if the Senators from all the States were present. 
 Thus their control of both branches of Congress would be complete. 
 Six of the judges of the supreme court are very old. In the natural 
 course of events during the next administration vacancies must happen, 
 which, if filled with these partizans, will give them the majority of the 
 court ; this gives them the control of the entire Federal government. 
 In the mean time if vacancies should not occur fast enough to suit their 
 purposes, the land offices under their control, frei homes under the 
 homestead bill, emigrant aid societies actively at work with the proper 
 direction of foreign immigration, the black republicans can locate popu- 
 lation with that already in the territories for the manufacture of at least 
 ten if not twelve new States in the next administration. These new 
 States would require an increase of the number of supreme court 
 judges, which would give them the court; but if they shoula fail in all 
 this, they will not hesitate, with both branches of Congress in their 
 power, to re-organize the court and increase the number of judges 
 regardless of the public wants. All they would want of a cordon of 
 free States around us would be a slice of Mexican territory on the west 
 of Texas ; with the power in their hands they would not fail to acquire 
 it either by purchase or conquest. 
 
 The republicans possessed of the control of all the departments of 
 government — executive, legislative and judicial, backed up with the 
 army and navy, and sustained by all the northern legislatures imbued 
 with the spirit of fanaticism and higher law consciences, the South 
 would be in a very defenceless condition. Our forts ana other places 
 occupied by the Federal government to carry out their edicts, their 
 emmissaries from the border free States inciting insurrection and steal- 
 ing negroes ; with their vessels plundering the large plantations imme- 
 diately on the coast, they would begin the work in earnest of reducing 
 the area of slavery. 
 
 The effect of this policy carried out, which is the avowed policy of 
 the next administration, would bring ruin on society and all the great 
 industrial and productive pursuits of the South. 
 
 Under this policy the price of land would advance and labor depreci- 
 ate; and from the necessity of the case slave labor would come in competi- 
 tion with white labor. High prices would induce many of the more ener- 
 getic non-slaveholders to sell their land and immigrate to a new free 
 State where land would be cheaper. The black populat : on would 
 increuse very rapidly, while the white would diminish. Many of the 
 wealthy people, as was the case in some of the West India Islands, 
 would reside abroad, and take away each year for investment the nett 
 proceeds of their crops. The land owners feeling but little interest in 
 a country they know to be doomed, there would be no incentive to the 
 improvement of the soil, while the price of labor would be depreciating 
 the productive value of the land would diminish. 
 1 The white population, under an unnatural pressure, with the induce- 
 
meats for emigration to the new free States, would rapidly diminish, 
 while the slave population, being eonBned to a limited district, would 
 as rapidly increase. At no distant day the country would have a re- 
 dundant population, with the mgro largely in the excess. If the ne- 
 gro should murder the white race, as was done in the island of St. Do- 
 mingo, the homes of our ancestors would fall into the hands of the 
 half-civilized Africans, who would soon relapse into barbarism; and the 
 fairest and most productive fields of America would be occupied by the 
 savage. Ultimately the wants of the superior race would require the 
 expulsion of the negro from the sugar, rice and cotton fields, to be 
 worked by some inferior race under the hand of constraint. 
 
 But, owing to the greater diversity of soil, climate, health and pro- 
 duction, I do not think our country would be a like case to St. Domin- 
 go. The rich, miasmatic districts being more productive and less 
 healthy, the negro population at an early day would rapidly accumu- 
 late in them, while the greater part of the white population would 
 either emigrate or go to the more salubrious districts of the upland and 
 mountain sections. Frequent insurrections would occur in the districts 
 densely populated by slaves ; the servants from other districts would 
 run away and receive protection among them. Thus there would exist 
 for years a guerrilla war between the races. Ultimately in the districts 
 of excessive slave population the slave would overpower the white man. 
 The couotry would present alternate neighborhoods of the two races, 
 unless the superior race, excited at the massacres of its own race, should 
 commence and wage a bloody war of exterminatiun. If they did, the 
 result would not long remain in doubt ; the African, like the other sa- 
 vage races, would become extinct by famine and war. 
 
 Let us, however, look at the Abolitionist view of the question. They 
 believe that there is an equality between the white and black races 
 which will be eventually asserted; that free negroes and white men 
 will live mixed up in one common nation ; that the two races will inter- 
 marry. What would the white man thi^k of a negro son-in-law or 
 negro daughter-in-law ? As unnatural as it may appear this condition 
 of society is tolerated by their teachings. What would be said of white 
 children, negro and mulatto children mingled together in the same 
 church, going to the same school, and eating at the same table? Schools 
 and colleges have been built up for this purpose, already in some of the 
 free States. 
 
 This ia no distorted view ; it is the legitimate result of the doctrine 
 of the equality of races, as taught by abolitionism. If the non-sl.ive- 
 holder should be unwilling to fight for the slave property, he will ever 
 be found resisting negro equality and free negro aggression. When- 
 ever the issue shall be fairly made up and presented, shall the negroes 
 remain slaves or become free negroes among us, the voice of North 
 Carolina will respond from Currituck to Cherokee, no more free negroes 
 in our State. The white man will never permit his wife and daughter 
 and children to descend to an equality with free negroes. He will 
 never submit to live in a land of free negroes and amalgamation. He 
 
8 
 
 would fight the bloodiest war of extermination that has ever been re- 
 corded in the annals of time. 
 
 But take another view of the subject : suppose the negro, after being 
 liberated, was to consent to live in a state of inferiority among us, their 
 presence would become intolerable. Disposed, under the most favora- 
 ble circumstances to be lazy and vicious, they would make no provisions 
 for themselves or families, but rely on stealing and plundering for their 
 support Already in our State the lands in the neighborhood of free 
 negroes are depreciated from their presence. If our people cannot 
 stand forty thousand free negroes, what would they say to half a mil- 
 lion of them in lieu of the present number of slaves. If these negroes 
 were freed, there is not enough money in the State to send them to Libe- 
 ria; and the northern States would never agree to take them into their 
 midst. I venture to predict there is not an intelligent non-slaveholder 
 in the State but what would say it would be better for the negroes and 
 better for the whites, that these slaves should be kept in slavery than 
 to be turned loose on society. The people of North-Carolina will never 
 submit to be crowded out by a free negro population ; nor will they 
 consent to allow the slave population to become excessive ior the want 
 of room for expansion. 
 
 Any person who will examine into the history of the negroe will see 
 that his condition is greatly improved bv his servitude under an Ameri- 
 can master. So long as the fr^sh soils further south are open for 
 his labor, we can have no excess of that kind of population ; the virgin 
 soils will draw them away quite as fast as we can spare them. Our true 
 policy is to keep the territory to the south of us open. If we were a 
 seperate confederacy we should have uo difficulty in acquiring, by pur- 
 chase, such territory as we may from time to time need. 
 
 In the present condition of the country, we are all interested in slavery, 
 and with no law limiting the ownership of this sort of property to any 
 particular family, all can acquire it who wish. The large slave owner 
 of this generation is the chid of him that owned none in a preceding 
 generation , and he that owns none at the present is frequently descended 
 from the large owner of a preceding day. Property under our institu- 
 tions is constantly changing hands. There is nothing to prevent pru- 
 dent and industrious men from accumulating it, and they can invest in 
 land, negroes, stocks, bonds or any of the industrial pursuits at their 
 option. 
 
 Negro, like other property, yields a support to all the departments of 
 the government ; it pays tax both in peace and war, and is a part of the 
 capital of the country. Tt is estimated that of the $12,000,000 of cot- 
 ton, corn, wheat, tobacco, naval stores, lumber, fish, fruit, and other 
 products exported, at least $11,000,000 is the product of slave labor. 
 The great swamp district which it was said by the late Mr. Gallatin, 
 was destined to become the great grainery of the country, between the 
 coast aod the Alleghany ridge, is dependent on this labor for its develop- 
 ment, and when developed will produce an excess of pork for home pur- 
 poses, and five times the grain that the entire State now yields. The 
 mining interest will look to this source for development, or will have to 
 
depend on that class of foreign population which has done so much to 
 injure northern society ; a population which no man wants among us 
 who is fully acquainted with it. 
 
 From the proceeds of slave-grown labor the merchant gets his money 
 to pay for his goods bought out of the State, and exchange is supplied 
 to pay the interest on the debt of North Carolina, which will soon amount 
 to fifteen millions of dollars. It is true ; that the merchant receives from 
 the non-slaveholder money that was earned by his own labor ; but what 
 would that money be worth in New York unless produce is sent there 
 to redeem the bank notes ? It is very clear that if we buy of a North- 
 ern State ten millions of dollars worth of goods, we must either send the 
 gold and silver or some kind of produce to pay for them. The merchant 
 usually takes with him exchange which is the proceeds of produce sold 
 in other markets, or he takes with him bank bills to pay for his goods, 
 and the person who receives the bills sends them back to the State and 
 they are redeemed by the proceeds of the produce sales. 
 
 Many of the comforts of life are derived from this kind of labor our 
 tables and firesides constantly keep them before our eyes. The sugar, 
 coffee, molasses, and cotton we use are derived from it. and without this 
 labor these articles would become of such high price that a man of mod- 
 erate means could not afford to use them. 
 
 Abolish slavery, says the Abolitionist, and white men will come in 
 to cultivate the soil and make up the deficit of production. A large 
 part of these slave-grown products are grown in countries where the 
 white man cannot labor, for the want of health; but the negro can, free 
 from any unusual sickness What would become of the white man and 
 his family growing sugar in Louisiana, in the Mississippi bottom, or cot- 
 ton on the Red or Arkansas river, or corn on the bottoms of the Roa- 
 noke, the Tar and Neuse, or rice on the Cape Fear or Peedee ? They 
 could not live. If these negroeswere liberated they would still be among 
 us, and experience teaches that they will not work without a master. 
 Southern slavery has done more to civilize the African than the com- 
 bined action of all the missionaries of the world. The African in his 
 native land was a cannibal, a man that would eat his own species ; here 
 is a half c vilized man who has his own condition improved and contri- 
 butes to the comforts of others. 
 
 History teaches that no nation has lost its institutions without losing 
 its nationality, they are so intimately intei woven that there is a mutu- 
 ality of dependence. Man is much the creature of education — his habits 
 are a second nature, and when sudderly changed against his will, his 
 progressive action becomes paralyzed and is liable to become subjugated 
 by the first superior power that comes in collision with him. Greece 
 yielded her institutions and with them her nationality to Rome. Cen- 
 turies after, the Romans in like manner yielded to the northern nations 
 of Europe ; the Norman overrode the Anglo-Saxon, who did not recover 
 his nationality until he regained his institutions. If the history of the 
 past be an index to the future, no two races can occupy the sam^coun- 
 try on terms of equality. 
 
 The change of our labor institutions would paralyze all the depart- 
 
 ■/ 
 
10 
 
 merits of industry, the planter, the mechanic, the merchant, the ship- 
 owner, and all the avocations of life would sustain great injuries. In 
 undergoing the change our people would suffer for a century to come, 
 while the African will not be benefitted. Our towns and villages would 
 go to de^ay for want of business, our railroads to ruin for the want of 
 employment, and rich fields of cotton and grain would be exchanged 
 for the old field pine, while much of the better classes, both slaveholder 
 and non-slaveholder would seek a home in a more prosperous country. 
 
 There is no case in history in which republics have existed for any 
 length of time without slavery ; in many of the most renowned battle 
 fields there were more Grecian slaves than Grecian soldiers. George 
 III previous to the Revolutionary war was admonished by one of his 
 wisest counsellors that unless he abolished slavery in the colonies they 
 would abolish his authority. Every citizen has an interest in all the 
 property of his government, because the property contributes to the sup- 
 port of government. Money and provisions are as essential to war as 
 soldiers, and whenever the purse is emptied, or the credit that supplies 
 it is exhai sted, the war ends, regardless of the maintenance of our rights. 
 Ifc is the property of the country that gives money and credit, without 
 these there can be no national defence. 
 
 Every species of property makes up the sum total of a national wealth 
 which helps to throw the shield of protection around all, both land, ne- 
 groes, money stocks, agricultural products and implements, ships, goods, 
 wares and merchandize, horses, hogs, cattle, mules, sheep, mechanical 
 implements, and every other species of effects go into the account of a 
 nation's means, and all these different kinds of property call alike on 
 tne government for protection, for each contributes to the protection 
 of every person. 
 
 It has sometimes been suggested that he that owns no slaves will feel 
 no interest in the controversy between the North and Snuth. This can- 
 not be so, for he has his person and property requiring protection as well 
 as the slave owner; if he has less property to protect, he has not less of 
 what is far more important to all, his liberty and life. If the landed 
 interest, is assailed will the non-slaveholder say, I own no land, and will 
 therefore give you no assistance. If the contest grows too warm I 
 will go to some country of more peace and quiet ; but he cannot always 
 go, he has other interests that will bind him to the soil. 
 
 If the ship laden by the merchant with our products should be attacked 
 and destroyed on distant seas, would the farmer, the mechanic, the laborer, 
 and others, who own no ships, say I have no interest in it, and therefore 
 will not join in an effort to avenge the wrong ? If these attacks continue 
 to be made I will have my effects carried by British vessels. ?^o such re- 
 sponse would be made ; they would say the flag of my country has been 
 wronged ; that flag that gives protection to the persons and property of all ; 
 we will avenge it. To illustrate this further, suppose one man owns cattle, 
 another horses, another mules, and another hogs ; if the man that owns 
 cattle should be attacked, will the others refuse to assist? if each of the 
 others should be assailed in like manner he would have to look to his own 
 arm for protection, and thus all would fall an easy prey to the strong hand 
 of their better organized enemy. Suppose a cruel and relentless attack; 
 
11 
 
 should be made on the mechanical inlerest of the country, would others say 
 we have no concern in it, we can get our wants suppled elsewhere, you must 
 take care of yourselves. If this rule is to apply to property it will be ex- 
 tended to persons. If the sailor on a foreign sea shall be oppressed of his 
 rights, would our countrymen at home desert him ! Never ; the persons and 
 property of every kind would extend the strong arm of protection. Persons 
 protect property, which in return gives the country increased means for the 
 protection of persons. The purse gives not only munitions of war, but has 
 often contributed soldiers ; many of the best fought battles of England have 
 received assistance from the foreign soldier. 
 
 The war of 1812 was fought for the rights of our seamen, and the whole 
 country with all its property contributed to it. A nominal tax on tea, 
 which was used by very few persons, was the immediate cause of the Re- 
 volutionary war ; a glorious revolution, in which all banded together in a 
 common cause and gave protection to our rights. 
 
 The question is, do slaves constitute a part of our property — do they in- 
 crease the products of the country and contribute to our national wealth 
 and to the support of the government? If they do, this kind of property is 
 entitled to the protection of the govenment. 
 
 When ever in any country the doctrine is established that no man is under 
 obligations to protect property of the kind of which he has none, the con- 
 nects of the different sorts of property holders will be so great that the de- 
 struction of society will be inevitable. The war will not be to protect us 
 from aggressions abroad but will be for each class of property holders to 
 protect themselves from the attacks of the others. The entire government 
 would be disintegrated, and we should all be involved in one common 
 agrariaoism and soon have nothing to protect. 
 
 It may be said that ii slavery was abolished the prices of lands would go 
 down ; so would every other kind of property. If you go to the country 
 where there are no slaves, the, land is in possession of the capitalist; so it 
 would be here, the capital would seek land for investment, and the land 
 owner, with a view to enhance it, wonld do as has been done in the North- 
 ern States, invite foreign labor, which would come in competition with the 
 present white laborer ; this foreign labor with the free negro labor, would 
 be found to be very oppressive to the poor. It is a fact well worthy of note 
 that the Southern States, in proportion to the population, have not the 
 number of paupers nor criminals that the Northern States have. 
 
 It has been said that the non-slaveholder has no interest in slavery. The 
 school fund that is appropriated for the education of the children of all, levies a 
 contribution on this property. The infirm poor who has no home, looks in part 
 to it, for his support. It contributes to the support of all the branches of gov- 
 ernment, and alike to the protection of the rights of person of all. If North- 
 ern property and stocks shall depreciate $400,000,000 at the prospect of losing 
 the benefit of the trade of the slave States, what would be the effect if slavery 
 were abolished. Neither the Naithern States nor Great Britain could do with- 
 out cotton supplies. In confirmation of this, while every other species of prop- 
 erty has depreciated, cotton has"advanced, on the belief that the condition of the 
 country might shorten the supply, 
 
 If a large dealer, in any county in the State fails, he usually injures his 
 neighbors, and not infrequently takes some of them with him into bankruptcy. 
 He owes his neighbor a debt, who expects to get it to pay another neighbor, 
 who in turn expects to pay with it some other obligation ; he fails to collect, 
 he is sued,and in return he sues, their suits cause many others. Suppose a half 
 dozen extensive dealers were to fail in a county, it would carry ruin to many 
 families. What would this be to the abolition of slavery property in a county, 
 
12 
 
 a majority of the owners of which, without it, would be unable to pay their 
 liabilities. What would they have with which to pay their debts ? With the 
 majority of the slaveholders bankrupt, where would the house carpenter, the 
 coach-maker, the tailor, shoe-maker, wagon and wheel-maker, and blacksmith, 
 and cabinet-maker, and other mechanics find market for their man- 
 ufactures ? — How would the merchant get his money to buy goods 
 with, or any other person whose necessities required him to raise 
 it? Those who had money due, could buy their debtor's property 
 at any price, while the entire county, if dependent on its own people 
 for purchasers would become bankrupt. But what would become of the entire 
 country if $2,000,000,000 of slave property was destroyed? There is no coun- 
 try in the world, that could withstand the shock. Bankruptcy and ruin would 
 overwhelm the entire population ; hunger aud want would stalk through the 
 land ; an amount of suffering unknown to any civilized country would ensue, 
 labor would want employment, and all business would stop. Suppose the non- 
 slaveholder objects to slavery because it cheapens labor, and in some instances 
 comes into competition with him. So does every labor saving machine or in- 
 vention. The rail-roads and steamboats of the country have taken away the 
 employment of thousands of laborers, while the sewing machine has supplanted 
 the business of millions. Every improved agricultural implement diminishes 
 the demand for labor, and the workshop of every mechanic and the factory of 
 every manufacturer is filled with inventions that save labor and increase the 
 profits of capital. If competition is to be a cause of abolishing slave labor, the 
 same reason would drive the horses, mules and oxen from the country when 
 the population becomes more dense. If these animals were taken from the 
 farm, the demand for agricultural labor would be quadrupled. It is the con- 
 flict between labor and capital, and is going in every civilized country in the 
 world. Capital wants to increase its profits, and labor wishes to increase its 
 wages. When the negro labor is confined to the fields and menial service, and 
 the white labor is employed in the mechanical and other higher pursuits, we 
 shall have an improvement on what is already the best system of labor known 
 to the world — and so long as sugar, coffee, rice and cotton are necessary to the 
 wants and comforts of civilized man, the negro or some other race will, under 
 the constraint of superior intellect cultivate them. 
 
 In vain have I looked for the the streaks of returning light ; the darkness 
 and gloom thickens. A few hopeful meetings have been held in some of 
 the fanatical States, but there is no evidence of the great change of popular 
 sentiment that is necessary for the safe recognition of our rights. For 
 twenty-five years we have been told to wait, that the slavery fanaticism 
 was a sort of moral epidemic that would work its own cu:e. We are still 
 told to wait, although it will soon have the government, the purse and 
 sword, with which to crush us ; it has been taught them as a part of their 
 edii cation ana religion. 
 
 The opening prayers of their sabbath-schools teaches the tender minds to 
 hate us; and their common shool books have horrid pictures of negroes in 
 chains, cruelly beaten by heartless masters, with a view to work on the 
 sympathies of the young minds. Their ministers who ought to have been 
 men of peace, have, every sabbath, opened on our southern institutions ; 
 they have instructed mothers as of holy writ to hate us ; they, in turn, have 
 instructed their cuildren with their own feelings, until a generation has 
 grown up who ought to have been our brothers, but they are our bitterest 
 enemies. Not content with invading all the ramifications of society with its 
 pestilentian spirit ; it has invaded their high schools, colleges and univer- 
 sities in order to keep the minds of educated men poisoned. It has invaded 
 the sacred desk, and driven those who were wont to worship at the same 
 
13 
 
 altar, to different communion tables, and their churches that once dwelt in 
 harmony, are now divided with bitter enmity. The cause that is strong 
 enough to divide churches, will, when the entire people become imbued 
 with it, divide States. 
 
 Religious fanaticism has already seized the mind with a firm grasp, from 
 which it is difficul to free it. It becomes too wise to be taught, derives ail 
 its sources of judgment from a misguided instruction. Inspired with their 
 distorted views of holy writ, it hides its evil deeds beneath the garb of re- 
 ligion, and whenever truih fails to establish its dogmas protection is sought 
 in the higher laws of conscience. You can teach new generations to avoid 
 the follies of the past, but you cannot teach the old fanatic to retrace his 
 steps. If Cutton Mather had lived until the present he would have been as 
 much the advocate of burning witches as he was in his own day. The 
 malady is without cure, and should we wait for another generation to do us 
 justice, we should have no rights to protect; the ruin of our country will 
 have been accomplished. 
 
 Amid all the anxiety to save the Union, and the distress brought on the 
 country, their President elect has kept silent as the tomb. If he I iad in- 
 tended to recognize the right of the south, he would have poured oil on the 
 troubled waters. To the distressed laboring classes of the north, thrown out of 
 employment by the revolution which is going on, he would have proclaimed 
 that the flag of our common country should wave alike for the protection 
 of the properly of the citizen of every State. Potent as his voice is for 
 good he has not said a word. He has seen the mechanics and poor white 
 laborers of his own section in want ; with the propprty of the States depre- 
 ciated hundreds of millions, and the national treasury on the brink of bank- 
 ruptcy, yet the negro was dearer to him than the redress of all these griev- 
 ances. The very tenacity with which he and his parly hold to their doc- 
 trines, prove that they are their convictions. 
 
 He has selected for the first place in his cabinet one who has led the attack 
 of the irrepressible conflict and the higher law doctrines ; who has spent 
 the best part of his life in waging war on the institutions of the South. For 
 another place he has chusen one who has spent his life in advocating the 
 equality of the negro with his own race, and in urging his claims to an asso- 
 ciation with the white man. W. H. Seward and S. P. Chase have long 
 been known as two of the reckless spirits that were rapidly hurrying the 
 country to ruin. 
 
 For other places the names spoken of have been more noted for bigotry and 
 fanaticism than wisdom and patriotism. Whatever hopes may have been in- 
 dulged, that he will become the President of nation of States, is dissipated by 
 the dark complexion of his Cabinet. 
 
 Some few chosen leaders have used occasionally a kind word, and have pro- 
 claimed their devotion to the Union. This they might well do ; for the Union 
 has always protected their rights and bestowed on them its choicest blessings. 
 Some of their party have kept a grum, sullen silence, while others, with a 
 fiery spirit of defiance, have proclaimed to us a submission, or sttbjugation with 
 fire and sword intermingled with the horrors of servile and civil war. 
 
 The party organ of the State of New York, in view of the overwhelming 
 crisis that was overspreading all the industrial, commercial and financial pur- 
 suits announced a willingness to settle up with a new compromise. The elec- 
 toral college of the Piepublicans of that State, meeting soon after for casting 
 their votes for President, bade the editor to return to their black idols, or they 
 would ostracise him from the party. 
 
 The Governor of the same State, who recommended compromise in broad 
 
14 
 
 platitudes, had his weakness revealed the day before he sent his message, by 
 having his favorite partizans beaten in his own State for the office of speaker 
 of one of the branches of the Legislature! 
 
 The Governor of Pennsylvania recommended coercion) compromise and the 
 repeal of the Personal Liberty Bill, while a few days after his entire party 
 Voted against taking the unconstitutional act from the Statute Book. The 
 Legislatuer of Vermont voted down the same proposition, two to one. Since 
 the Presidential election the Governor elect of Massachusetts joined in a free 
 negro procession in the streets of Boston, to celebrate the felonious raid on 
 Virginia, Yet the gains in the local elections in this State, that gave seventy 
 thousand majority against the constitutional candidates, are heralded as great 
 reactions in popular sentiment* 
 
 We may coerce their people for the time being by breaking up their busi- 
 ness, and bringing ruin on their manufacturers, and by throwing their opera* 
 tives out of employment, but you can no more coerce their vicious principle 
 out of them than they can coerce the South into submission to their oppression* 
 When you take the outside pressure from their pockets they will be the same 
 old purtians with their higher law consciences. In the expression of these 
 views I allude only to the dominant party ; for I know they have many true 
 and patriotic men in all the Northern States ; but they are without power, and 
 according to present indications will continue so. 
 
 We are all determined to leave the Union, if w r e fail to get our rights in it, 
 With this determination, would it not be prudent to prepare for either alterna- 
 tive ? Should we not prepare to withdraw so as to act promptly if the emer» 
 gency should arise ? I think it has already arisen ; many of you think it has 
 hot, but'that it may arise at an early day* Prudence would say to those who 
 think the time has come, as Well as to those who think it may come — call 
 a convention, and be prepared to act according to the emergency of the case. 
 Suppose Lincoln and his party, after they are installed in office, shall bring to bear 
 the power of the Federal Government on us. Shall we then wait to go through 
 the forms of convening the Legislature to call a convention to withdraw from 
 the Union ? Or shall we be precipitated into revolution by usurpation, plead» 
 ing in justification the stern dictates of necessity. 
 
 Four of the slaveholding States are already out of the Union, and in a few 
 days more others will go. Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia and Texas have 
 already called conventions. Kentucky and Missouri will, at an early day, 
 follow. What ought North-Carolina to do ? She has the same grievances 
 that have put a part of the States out of the Union, and that have and will 
 cause the other Slave States to put themselves in a condition to go if the 
 occasions shall require. We are not bound to go if we do pass the convention 
 bill. If the people say go, we will go ; if they say otherwise, we will stay. 
 I believe on the 4th day of March next, unless the Black Republicans retrace 
 their steps, there will not be three Southern States in the old Union of States* 
 
 In the presidential campaign these republicans were offered squatter sover- 
 eignty, the Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws, and 
 national protection to the persons and property of all both by land and sea ; all 
 these they repudiated : they chose the negro ; they prevailed in the election with 
 the full knowledge that the question of disunion would be presented in the 
 event of their success. What then shall we do ? I Would call a convention 
 and go out of the Union, unless We had unmistakable evidences that our rights 
 would be acknowledged and respected by prompt amendments to the Constitu- 
 tion, backed up by change in public sentiments. But of this there is no hope. 
 Let us go out and unite with our friends of the southern States. 
 
 Of all the plans suggested the least agreeable to me is the formation of a 
 central confederacy. There are to day more signs of reaction in the New 
 
15 
 
 England States which are to he left out, than in those it proposed to take into 
 the new copartnership. The same cause that will compel us to go out of the 
 old Union, will compel us to leave a central confederacy ; the free border States 
 would steal negroes and preach incendiarism quite as strong in the new Union 
 as they did in the otd one. 
 
 We ought not only to settle the rights of property, but we ought to have 
 these doctrines of coercion settled. If the majority of States are to have the 
 power to coerce the minority, then in a confederated republic the latter have no 
 protection. A tyranny of States is quite as bad as a tyranny of individuals, 
 The theory at the time of the formation of the government was that the whole 
 world was inimical to republics— that a common sense of danger would keep 
 them together, and cause them to endure even oppression before they would 
 withdraw from the common league ; and that this power on the part of the 
 minority to withdraw, would cause their rights to be respected. This question 
 of unlimited power of the majority we ought to have settled , We ought to 
 require that free negroes should not be allowed to vote ; if they are with the 
 accessions from immigration and runaway slaves from southern States, they 
 will soon begin to control both State and federal elections in some of the States, 
 Unless this is done the free negro vote will be constantly wielding the balance 
 of power. 
 
 It has been urged by some that -we should be in a more defenceless condi- 
 tion out of the Union thar in it. It is the first time I have ever heard that 
 we are strengthened by having enemies around our firesides. In the Union 
 we have only the remonstrance of a powerless minority in Congress ; out, 
 we would have all the force of king cotton and commercial treaties. No 
 better illustration of this can be given than the following ; a negro killed 
 his master in an effort to recapture hitn, and made his escape to Ohio. The 
 Governor of Kentucky demanded, while the Governor of the former State 
 refused to deliver him up and gave him protection. Precisely the same 
 case happened by the escape of a slave from Missouri into Canada, a foreign 
 country. He was demanded and under treaty stipulations delivered up to 
 the law. Our northern friends, under a different government, would find it 
 much more to their advantage to trade with us than to steal negroes ; gain 
 would soon take the place of false philanthropy. Now we have no protec- 
 tion, then we would have both the sword and commerce. 
 
 We are sometimes told that all the world is against slavery. This may 
 be so in theory, but is not so in practice. Many of the most powerful gov- 
 ernments depend on slave labor for supplies of cotton, sugar, coffee and rice. 
 Some of them could not exist a single yenr without them. If England 
 could afford to whip China because they would not buy opium from them, I 
 should think she wou'd have a much greater interest to interfere with thone 
 who were trying to cut off her supply of cotton. 
 
 Let as get ready to withdrew, saying to the northern States, you have 
 done us wrong, unless you give immediate evidence of your purpose to 
 yield our rights, we ehall leave the Union, peaceably if we can, forcibly if 
 we must. 
 
 We may patch up another compromise, but there can be no safety to us as 
 long as the northern States deny our right to hold the negro as property. 
 With the contest in those States between capital and labor, fanaticism per- 
 vad'ng all the walks of life, sickly sentimentality, taking the place of rea* 
 son, infidelity rooting out religion, the pulpit changed into the political ros- 
 trum, with an atmosphere that tolerates free love and Fourierism, and pro- 
 duces Momonism and bigamy, all presided over by the demoralising doc- 
 trines of spiritualism^ it is much to be feared that some of them will «oon 
 
16 
 
 degenerate into agrariani-rn, and become less desirable members of the 
 confederated republic than they have heretofore been. 
 
 It has been urged that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency is 
 no cause for dissolution of the Union. If he and his pa-vy had been content 
 on their elevation to power to administer the governm .„ t according to the 
 Constitution and laws, as many believed they would, the question would 
 have worn quite a different aspect ; but instead of this, they have indicated 
 their purpose to urge their fanatical policy. If Great Britain had declared 
 war against us, we w< uld have made due preparation to meet her. The re- 
 publican party have declared a war on our institutions, that if successful 
 must be more disastrous in its conspquences than any we have ever been en- 
 gaged in, and yet we have not made preperatlon to resist them. The 
 duty on tea was the crowning act of the series that brought on the revolu- 
 tionary war. The election of Lincoln, with his party avoAvals, will be the 
 last of the aggressive acts that will dissolve the Union. 
 
 We cannot evade the question, we have to remain with the North or go with 
 our friends of the South. If the entire South should be unable to protect her- 
 self from aggression in the present government, wha' can Virginia, North- 
 Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas lo in the Union, shorn 
 of nearly half of her protecting power ? Would an ovt bearing enemy be less 
 merciful to a weakened opponent, whose ruin was m< ditated ? There is no 
 alternative, Ave shall have to go with the States south c f us, we have kindred 
 feeling, pursuits and institutions that will bind us together We shall have no 
 supposed irrepressible conflict between the labor systems of different States. 
 
 There is certainly great danger of collision between the two sections. However 
 much we may desire to avoid it, the do nothing policy will not shield us from 
 an attack. The true policy is, in peace prepare for war. Shall we learn 
 nothing from the history of the past? With five years notice, the impending 
 crisis that ended in the war of 1812, found the coiurry unprepared. The 
 destruction of property and commerce that resulted from it, would have paid a 
 large part of the expenses of the war. Thirteen years strife, with increasing- 
 bitterness like the present, found our . ancestors total y unprepared for the 
 great struggle of the Revolution. Our safety lies in promp| withdrawal from 
 the Union and the immediate formation of a Southern Confederacy. 
 
 The great danger of delay is, it may cause the abolitk n horde to believe that 
 it was caused by a divison of sentiment favorable to them. If the worst 
 should come, with such convictions on their minds, it may cost us an attempted 
 invasion of our State to look for their supposed sympatl sers, and our invaders 
 will attempt to excite servile war and insurrection. Ve have many well- 
 tried, true and faithful friends in each of the States froi ■ which we propose to 
 separate; these patriotic men will contribute to the formation of good neighborly 
 feeling between the two Republics. 
 
 AVe are the inj ured party ; it is their duty to offer redress; a just and rea- 
 sonable proposition for the protection of our rights, wo ild at all times have 
 been accepiable to me. I regret much, that such a preposition has not been 
 offered. Let us call the convention, let the voice of the State be heard ; when 
 the speaks let us all be loyal to the voice of a common mother, That voice will 
 say, unite with our sister Southern States. 
 
 Printed at the State Journal Office 
 
Phoiomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros. Inc. 
 
 Makers 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 PAT. JAM 21, 1908 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032721653 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
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